Cuban spy
convicted of murder and released by Obama says he’s ready for his ‘next
order’

March 2 - In the depths of
his 16-year odyssey through the U.S. prison system, convicted Cuban spy
Gerardo Hernandez was transferred to an underground cell at Lompoc
Federal Correctional Institution that was known to inmates simply as
“the cage.”
As Hernandez recalls it, he was stripped to his underwear, cut off from
all human contact and tormented by toilet water seeping — drip by drip —
from the cell above him into the sink in his cramped living space.
It was days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the federal
Bureau of Prisons was taking no chances — “special administrative
measures,” as they were called — with high-profile, politically
sensitive inmates such as Hernandez, who was serving a double life
sentence, with no possibility of parole, for conspiracy to commit
espionage and murder.
“Hello,” he said when he was finally permitted to make his first phone
call to his designated contact at the Cuban Interests Section in
Washington. “It is the Count of Monte Cristo calling.”
It was Hernandez’s impish allusion to the famous 19th-century novel by
Alexandre Dumas, whose hero, Edmond Dantès, is imprisoned in a dungeon
on a Mediterranean island for the rest of his life — only to
miraculously escape and re-emerge years later, triumphant, as a wealthy
member of French nobility.

Today, after a series of plot
twists every bit as improbable as those in Dumas’ novel, Hernandez
counts himself as the modern-day, real-life equivalent. His sentence
commuted by President Barack Obama, he is now a free man in his native
Cuba, reunited with his wife, Adriana, and his former spy comrades. Last
Tuesday, Hernandez and his fellow spies — the Cuban Five, they are
called here — were officially decorated by President Raúl Castro as
national heroes in a grand celebration at Cuba’s National Assembly.
And, Hernandez tells Yahoo News in an exclusive interview, he’s ready to
return for duty to advance the cause of his country’s communist
revolution.
“What I’m telling you right now, I already told Raúl Castro: I’m a
soldier,” said Hernandez, pounding his chest. “I’m ready to receive my
next order. I can serve anywhere my country believes I am useful.”
Perhaps most astonishing of all, Hernandez, 48, is also the father of a
7-week-old baby, Gema. The girl (her name means “precious stone” in
Spanish) was conceived last year while Hernandez was still in a U.S.
prison: His frozen sperm was shipped to Panama for secret fertility
treatments for Adriana, all facilitated by the Obama administration — at
the urging of Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy — as part of its backdoor
diplomacy with the Cuban government.
“We have to believe in miracles,” Hernandez said, gently rocking Gema, a
glowing Adriana by his side as the couple sat in the courtyard of the
foreign ministry villa where they now live, attended to by a
government-supplied staff of nannies, cooks and servers.
The release last Dec. 17 of Hernandez, as well as the last two
imprisoned members of his Cuban Five spy network, Ramon Labanino and
Antonio Guerrero, was a huge propaganda coup for the Castro government.
It also paved the way for a historic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuba relations
that has already brought a wave of American tourists to the island and
U.S. companies knocking on Havana’s door looking for new business
opportunities.

But the freeing of Hernandez
and the Cuban Five spies — coinciding with Cuba’s release of imprisoned
American contractor Alan Gross and a jailed CIA spy — is continuing to
stir raw anger among anti-Castro Cubans in South Florida and some
members of Congress.
“Shameful,” wrote GOP Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Bob Goodlatte,
chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a recent letter to the
Bureau of Prisons, describing Hernandez as a “convicted spy and
murderer” and demanding answers about the medical treatments for his
wife. Continue Reading
Yahoo News

Orestes
"Minnie" Miñoso "The Cuban Comet" is dead

March 1 - Baseball has lost
another iconic ambassador.
Former White Sox star outfielder Minnie Minoso was found dead in the
driver’s seat of his car early Sunday.
An autopsy performed Sunday afternoon determined Minoso died of a tear
in his pulmonary artery caused by “chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.” The White Sox and his family said he was 90.
Just over a month after the death of Cubs legend Ernie Banks, Chicago
fans and longtime followers of baseball worldwide now mourn the death of
Minoso, known as the “Cuban Comet.”
Chicago’s first black major league player, Minoso was much more than a
consummate ballplayer.
“I didn’t know Minnie until I bought the club in 1981, but the first
time I met him I fell in love with his infectious personality and his
love for the White Sox,” White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said Sunday.
“He was just one of the most genuine people that you would ever want to
know.”
Minoso was driving home from a friend's birthday party when he
apparently fell ill and pulled over in the Lakeview neighborhood,
according to police and family.
He was found unresponsive in the driver's seat of his car near a gas
station in the 2800 block of North Ashland Avenue around 1 a.m.,
according to police. There were no signs of trauma and Minoso was
pronounced dead at the scene at 1:09 a.m., police said.
President Barack Obama, a lifelong Sox fan, released a statement that
included the following:
“For South Siders and Sox fans all across the country, including me,
Minnie Minoso is and will always be 'Mr. White Sox.' ... Minnie may have
been passed over by the Baseball Hall of Fame during his lifetime, but
for me and for generations of black and Latino young people, Minnie’s
quintessentially American story embodies far more than a plaque ever
could.”
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts issued a statement saying the team was
“deeply saddened by the passing of Minnie Minoso. Having recently lost
one of our all-time greats, Ernie Banks, we share the heartache with the
White Sox organization and fans everywhere who were blessed to enjoy the
talent, heart and passion of Mr. White Sox.”
Minoso’s son Charlie Rice-Minoso said: “He was an extraordinary person.
He made many contributions to baseball and to Chicago. He'll be missed
most by his family and closest friends.
“He had so many amazing relationships with people,” he added, choking
up. “It was just amazing to see that, even so many years after he
played, to see how he was respected. We're just eternally grateful.”
Billy Pierce, a former star White Sox pitcher and teammate of Minoso,
said he could tell Minoso was not feeling well recently.
“I had been with him at SoxFest, and he had to stop two or three times
when we were walking because it was tough getting his breath,” Pierce
told the Tribune. “He wasn’t real well then, and from what I had been
told, at Christmastime he had to go into the hospital because he had the
same problem.”
Minoso’s birthday was listed on baseball-reference.com as Nov. 29, 1925,
but some believed he was as old as 92. When asked about his age, he once
said, “Look what they say in the Sox record book.”
Rice-Minoso said the family is going with 90.
“That's the number we have down in Spanish documents. That's the date,”
he said. “It's kind of a running joke. That was the one topic he didn't
want to focus on, so of course that's what everyone wanted to know.”
Playing left field on my sandlot baseball team, I always tried to
emulate Minnie. He was my favorite baseball player when I was chasing
fly balls. In my eyes, Minnie will always be a Hall of Famer! Rest in
Peace Mr. Chicago White Sox.
Born in Cuba, Orestes “Minnie” Minoso came to the United States in 1945
and played three seasons for the New York Cubans in the Negro Leagues.
Bill Veeck, then owner of the Indians, purchased his contract in
September 1948. He made his major league debut in 1949, playing nine
late-season games for the Indians.
After spending 1950 in the minors, Minoso came to the Sox in an early
season trade in 1951. He became the Sox’s and Chicago’s first black
player on May 1, 1951. Minoso wasted no time making his presence felt,
getting two hits and two RBIs in an 8-3 loss to the Yankees. He quickly
electrified Comiskey Park, hitting .326 to finish second in AL Rookie of
the Year voting.
It was just the start for Minoso. In 1954, he had his second straight
fourth-place finish in AL Most Valuable Player voting, hitting .320 with
19 homers, 18 triples, 19 stolen bases, 116 RBIs and 119 runs. He played
in nine All-Star Games.
I'm proud of everything. I'm proud to be a baseball player.
“I felt Minnie was the one player in the American League who had that
intangible quality of excitement that makes fans talk about him when
they leave the park,” Frank Lane, the general manager who brought Minoso
to the White Sox, once said.
The Sox retired his No. 9 in 1983. However, Minoso’s appeal went beyond
Chicago. He was regarded as the first Latin American superstar,
inspiring young players who dreamed of joining him in the big leagues.
Minoso spoke broken English, but his vibrant smile and enduring love for
the game translated clearly everywhere.
“He and I would talk, and I had to say, ‘Minnie, what did you say?’ But
I don’t think he ever said a nasty thing about anybody. It was always
good, always friendly,” Pierce said. Read more
The Chicago Tribune

Venezuela
and Cuba: Partners in repression

Feb 24 - Last week,
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro paid a visit to Havana and met with
Raúl and Fidel Castro, who have been his patrons and who helped to
install him in power after the death of Hugo Chávez. Mr. Maduro’s
political situation is desperate: As Venezuelans suffer severe shortages
of staple goods and soaring inflation, his approval rating has dropped
to 22 percent — and that’s before the full impact of falling oil prices
hits a country dependent on petroleum for 96 percent of its
hard-currency revenue.
On his return from Havana, Mr. Maduro turned to a familiar tactic.
Intelligence agents stormed the residence of the elected opposition
mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, and took him away to a military
prison. Mr. Maduro then delivered a three-hour rant on television in
which he accused the opposition leader of plotting a coup against him
with the help of the Obama administration. Needless to say, he had no
evidence to support this ludicrous charge.
If this sounds like a script borrowed from the Castro regime, that’s
because it is. With Havana’s encouragement, Mr. Maduro is trying to
shore up his crumbling support by concocting supposed threats from the
United States and using them to illegally imprison his leading
opponents. Mr. Ledezma follows several other mayors into captivity. With
him at the Ramo Verde prison is Leopoldo López, the opposition leader
who has been in military custody for more than a year.
The Castros, whose own crumbling economy depends heavily on supplies of
discounted Venezuelan oil, are simultaneously trying to sustain their
Caracas cash cow and line up new flows of dollars from the United States
by restoring diplomatic relations. Intent on carrying out a policy of
detente with Cuba that aides say was part of the ideological agenda he
brought to office six years ago, President Obama ignores this double
game.
To be sure, the White House spoke out sharply against the arrest of Mr.
Ledezma and called the coup plot claims “baseless and false.” Following
a mandate from Congress, the administration has sanctioned several dozen
Venezuelan leaders for involvement in drug trafficking and human rights
crimes and says it is considering additional steps. However, the core
U.S. policy toward the unfolding disaster in a country that remains a
major U.S. oil supplier has been to call on other Latin American
countries to do something.
Predictably, they haven’t. Quick to pounce on right-wing governments
that violate democratic norms, Brazil, Mexico and Chile have
scrupulously avoided crossing the left-wing populist regime created by
Chávez. A delegation of ministers from the regional group Unasur, which
tilts toward Venezuela, is talking of returning to the country to
promote a “dialogue” but has yet to call for Mr. Ledezma’s release.
The country with the most influence in Caracas is Cuba. U.S. officials
ought to tell the Castros that they need to choose between Mr. Maduro’s
anti-American-themed repression and the new relationship with Washington
they say they want. As for Venezuela’s president, U.S. officials ought
to seek his formal sanction under the Inter-American charter prohibiting
violations of democracy — and challenge Venezuela’s neighbors to show
where they stand.
The Washington Post

Good news:
Nancy Pelosi is in Cuba - Bad news: She is not staying there

Feb 17 - House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi led a delegation of Democrats from her chamber on a
visit to Cuba on Tuesday that her office said was aimed at further
improving U.S. relations with the island nation.
Pelosi, D-Calif., and eight other Democrats were planning to meet with
Cuban government, local and church officials, and with American
officials representing U.S. interests there.
The visit comes two months after President Barack Obama and Cuban
President Raul Castro announced steps toward normalizing relations
between the two countries, which have been estranged for half a century.
“This delegation will work to advance the U.S.-Cuba relationship and
build on the work done by many in the Congress over the years,
especially with respect to agriculture and trade,” Pelosi said in a
written statement.
Democrats traveling with Pelosi included Reps. Eliot Engel of New York,
top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Collin Peterson of
Minnesota, lead Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee; and Nydia
Velazquez of New York, senior Democrat on the House Small Business
Committee.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials had said the Cuban government had
postponed all congressional visits until April. But Cuban officials said
only some had been delayed because of a large number of requests.
The U.S. has partially lifted the 54-year-old economic embargo on Cuba,
easing restrictions on U.S. telecommunications exports and on American
credit and debit card transactions on the island. Only Congress can
fully lift the embargo, a move supported by Obama but opposed by
congressional Republican leaders. The
Washington Times

The Truth
About 'Tourist Apartheid' in Cuba

Feb 17 - Contrary to recent
headlines, Cuba is not flinging open its doors for tourist travel.
Although there have been recent changes in U.S. regulations, it is still
technically illegal for an American to be a tourist in Cuba. In fact,
during a recent art-buying trip I took to Cuba, I learned there is a
term used to describe the visitor situation in the country: “tourist
apartheid.” In other words, travelers still remain separate from the
general population.
The purpose of my trip was to buy art, but the visit also allowed me to
learn more about the lives of “real” Cubans — which is very different
from what tourists see and experience. The people I interviewed
whispered their answers while glancing over their shoulders. “Who could
possibly be listening?” I asked.
The truth is that anyone can be listening.
I took a similar trip to Cuba last year. That was when I learned that
freedom is still scarce in the country. During that trip, I was followed
by a spy who somehow knew that I was carrying a book by a well-known
dissident Cuban blogger — even though I hadn’t shown the book to anyone
and had not left it in my hotel room. The ministry of tourism contacted
my group leader, who made me surrender the “anti-government propaganda.”
We aren’t imagining that Cuba is an oppressive socialist regime — it is.
To get a job there, Cubans still need to be able to provide
documentation that they are good socialists. Telling an American
journalist the story of your life could jeopardize that. So for that
reason, most names in this story have been changed. I spent my time on
the ground trying to answer my own questions about the current situation
in Cuba. Here is what I learned:
During a lunch at a popular tourist restaurant in Havana, a doorman
pulled me aside. Under the guise of a “restaurant tour,” he told me his
story. After completing six years of medical school and obtaining a
prominent position in the hospital, he earns $52 per month — roughly the
same amount it costs to eat lunch in the restaurant where he works. He
stays in Cuba because he loves what he does. He continues to practice
medicine because he loves what he does. When he met his wife’s family,
they were disappointed that she was marrying a doctor; her last
boyfriend had been a waiter. Right now, waiters and taxi drivers earn
more than doctors and engineers, because they cater to tourists, whereas
doctors and engineers cater to the general population.
Yahoo News

Cuban
Dissident Calls New US-Cuba Relations a Fraud

Feb 15 - He's been called the
"Nelson Mandela of Cuba," and he takes that title and uses it to promote
an agenda he says is the truth about what's happening in Cuba.
Jorge Luis Pérez Antunez, known on the island simply as "Antunez," spent
17 years and 38 days in a Cuban prison for what he says was his basic
human right to have an opinion.
Antunez says in 1990, at age 25, he stood in a public plaza in Havana,
listening to Communist propaganda over a loud speaker and chose to speak
louder.
"I yelled as loud as I could that Communism was a mistake and Cuba
needed reforms," he says.
He would not see his family again for nearly two decades.
Released in 2007, Antunez says he will not stop speaking out, knowing it
could land him back behind bars at any moment. He claims the Cuban
government routinely visits his home to ransack the house and has left a
large hole in his front door for the purpose of being able to keep an
eye on him.
On Feb. 2, Orange County Congressman Edward Royce, R-CA, who heads up
the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, invited
Antunez and his wife, Yris Tamara Pérez Aguilera, to Washington to
testify in a hearing called "Human Rights in Cuba: A Squandered
Opportunity."
While in D.C., Antunez met with outspoken Congressman (and son of Cuban
immigrants) Marco Rubio as well.
Antunez says Cuba is not the romantic island so many foreigners believe
it to be and he says the crimes of the Cuban government continue even
after Obama's Dec. 17 executive order.
"We feel abandoned," Antunez says of the renewed relations, believing
Obama has green-lighted the Castro regime's violations of human rights.
"The regime is stronger now," he says since the announcement, "and
oppression is on the rise."
On the topic of the 50-year embargo against the island, Antunez says
Obama is wrong that it's a failed policy.
Instead, Antunez says the embargo is the only proof that the U.S. backs
those he calls the "true people of Cuba."
Antunez's wife calls the renewed talks a "farce," pointing to the lack
of food and things as commonplace in the U.S. as soap and laundry
detergent. But that's exactly the Obama Administration's argument for
easing sanctions - that the Cuba government has blamed the U.S. embargo
for the island's economic woes.
Antunez spent the morning admiring a statue at LA's Echo Park. The
statue was placed there in the 1970s, the area once home to a growing
number of Cuban refugees after the 1960s exodus.
It is a bust of Cuban Revolutionary Hero, Jose Martí. Antunez says
seeing it gives him hope.
"So far from Cuba in a place like Los Angeles," he says. "It shows us
the cause is not lost."
Antunez returns to Miami next week and to Cuba in March, where he says
he believes the Cuban government may arrest him for having spoken out
while in the U.S., but he says he's ready.
"I will not be silenced and I will not leave my Cuba," he says.
NBC

In Cuba,
prosperity will require changes to government control

Feb 15 - When Cuba was
hit with rolling blackouts a decade ago, Fidel Castro decided to save
energy by ordering everyone on the island to switch from incandescent to
fluorescent lighting. Millions, perhaps billions, of bulbs were ordered
from China, and teams of students were dispatched to enter every home
and business and make the switch.
It was, a former high-level government official said, “a typical Fidel
thing.”
The grand gesture as a way of addressing economic crises, from the mass
mobilization to harvest sugar in 1970 to the attempt to replace every
light bulb in the country 35 years later, has disappeared under Cuba’s
current leader, Fidel Castro’s brother Raul.
“What most people want now is prosperity that can be sustained,” said
the former official, who did not want to be identified so he could speak
candidly. “Fidel wouldn’t accept anybody telling him he was wrong. Raul
is a hardline party guy. But he wants the opinions of experts.” And
economists here have been telling their government that prosperity will
require significant changes in the way Cuba does business.
Nearly a month after President Obama eased travel and trade restrictions
against Cuba, it remains unclear whether Havana can or will take full
advantage of new opportunities to buy U.S. products.
New categories of permitted U.S. exports, such as telecommunications
equipment, are tied to expanding civil rights and freedoms for the Cuban
people, and purchases will require political decisions by the government
here. Critics of the new policy charge that Havana will not take
advantage of the offer because it prefers to keep its population in the
dark, with severely limited Internet and access to the outside world.
But more immediately, any purchases from the United States will require
cash that is in short supply. Under the terms of the U.S. embargo, Cuba
cannot buy U.S. products on credit.
“We don’t have enough money to buy what we need,” Juan Triana Cordovi, a
government economist at the University of Havana’s Center for Cuban
Economic Studies said in an interview. “The financial situation today in
Cuba is strained.”
While the United States has long permitted export of agricultural goods
to Cuba, last year’s shipments were the smallest amount in more than a
decade. The difference, in an economy that imports up to 75 percent of
its food, has been made up by Latin American and other countries that
sell on credit.
“Many U.S. agricultural producers want to sell a lot to Cuba, but Cuba
needs money to do it,” Triana said. “If these companies are willing to
extend credit, fine. If not, it’s impossible for Cuba to increase its
purchases.”
There is much about life here that most Cubans take for granted and are
unlikely to want to give up. All receive free education and health care;
housing is free or heavily subsidized for many. Each Cuban receives a
ration book each month for food staples. Life expectancy and literacy
are the highest in Latin America and among the highest in the world.
But government control of the economy extends far beyond such basics.
Except for a relatively small number of allowed private enterprises and
portions of the agricultural sector, all businesses and means of
production belong to the government. Foreign investors, including those
who have built many of the tourist hotels that draw more than 2 million
visitors a year, must recruit their workers through the government and
pay wages into government coffers in a dollar-pegged special currency.

The government then pays all
workers, from doctors to tourism workers to janitors, in the far less
valuable local money, the national peso, at an exchange rate of 24 to 1.
The dual currency system, and the average monthly wage of about 475
pesos, leaves most with a converted monthly income of about $20, even as
it allows state enterprises to hide inefficiencies and corruption.
Many here receive overseas remittances, which totaled $2.7 billion last
year from the United States, and new regulations the Obama
administration announced last month quadrupled the amount that can be
sent to individuals. Those in the tourist and restaurant industries
receive tips in hard currency.
But even for those with disposable income to purchase consumer goods,
few things are available to buy. Most imports must be paid for in
“convertible” pesos.
The Washington Post

Aggressive
new HIV strain detected in Cuba

Feb 15 - Researchers said an
aggressive HIV strain in Cuba progresses into AIDS so fast that
treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late.
A new HIV strain in some patients in Cuba appears to be much more
aggressive and can develop into AIDS within three years of infection.
Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with
antiretroviral drugs may come too late.
Without treatment, HIV infection usually takes 5 to 10 years to turn
into AIDS, according to Anne-Mieke Vandamme, a medical professor at
Belgium's University of Leuvan. According to the study, published in the
journal EBioMedicine, Vandamme was alerted to the new aggressive strain
of HIV by Cuban health officials who wanted to find out what was
happening.
"So this group of patients that progressed very fast, they were all
recently infected," Vandamme explained to Voice of America. "And we know
that because they had been HIV negative tested one or a maximum two
years before."
None of the patients had received treatment for the virus, and all of
the patients infected with the mutated strain of HIV developed AIDS
within three years.
While fast progression of HIV to AIDS is usually the result of the
patient's weak immune system rather than the particular subtype of HIV,
what's happening in Cuba is different.
"Here we had a variant of HIV that we found only in the group that was
progressing fast. Not in the other two groups. We focused in on this
variant [and] tried to find out what was different. And we saw it was a
recombinant of three different subtypes."
The new variant, named CRF19, is a combination of HIV subtypes A, D and
G.
HIV normally infects cells by attaching itself to what is called a
co-receptor, and the transition to AIDS usually occurs when the virus
switches -- after many years -- from co-receptor CCR5 to co-receptor
CXCR4. The new strain makes the switch much faster.
The variant has been observed in Africa, but in too few cases to be
fully studied. Researchers said the strain is more widespread in Cuba.

Feb 5 - It seems that the one
who is really interested in reestablishing relations is the United
States, not the Castro regime, according to this story from Reuters.
Obama doesn't want to admit that he made a huge mistake when he made a
deal with terrorists:

The United States is pressing
Cuba to allow the opening of its embassy in Havana by April, U.S.
officials told Reuters, despite the Communist island's demand that it
first be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
A refusal by Cuba to allow the United States to quickly establish an
official embassy for the first time in half a century could complicate
talks between the Cold War foes, reflecting enduring mistrust as they
move to end decades of confrontation.
It would also mark the first major setback since President Barack
Obama's historic shift in Cuba policy in December, suggesting one of the
biggest foreign policy moves of his administration is struggling to
achieve even its first goal.
Striking Cuba from the terrorism list could take until June or longer,
although the White House is pushing officials to move quickly, said two
U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the State Department's review to
take Cuba off the list.
Washington is eager to re-establish diplomatic ties before a regional
summit in Panama in April, when Obama will meet Cuban leader Raul Castro
for the first time since 2013, the officials said.
The two leaders announced a historic deal on Dec. 17 to restore
relations. U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet this month or in early
March in Washington for a second round of talks.
While renewing diplomatic relations could happen quickly, the process to
normalize, including removing the U.S. trade embargo, will take far
longer.
Cuba has not made removal from the list a condition for restoring ties,
U.S. officials said. But Havana made clear during the first round of
talks last month that it first wants to be removed from the terrorism
list.
For Cuba, which considers its designation an injustice, getting removed
from the list would be a long-coveted propaganda victory at home and
abroad.
Washington placed Cuba on the list in 1982, citing then President Fidel
Castro's training and arming of Communist rebels in Africa and Latin
America. The list is short: just Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba.
But Cuba's presence on the list has been questioned in recent years. The
State Department's latest annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" says
Cuba has long provided a safe haven for members of the Basque separatist
group ETA and Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas.
But ETA, severely weakened by Spanish and French police, called a
ceasefire in 2011 and has pledged to disarm. And the FARC has been in
peace talks with the Colombian government for the past two years, with
Cuba as host.
Even the State Department acknowledged in its report that Cuba has made
progress. "There was no indication that the Cuban government provided
weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups," it said.
Cuba raised this issue before January's talks in Havana. A senior
official from Cuba’s foreign ministry told reporters on Jan. 20 that it
was "unfair" to keep Cuba on the State Department's list.
"We cannot conceive of re-establishing diplomatic relations while Cuba
continues to be included on the list," the official told reporters,
speaking on condition of anonymity. "It doesn't make any sense that we
re-establish diplomatic relations and Cuba continues (on the list)."
It is rare, though not unheard of, for the United States to remove
entities or countries from its list of terrorist supporters. One entity
which was removed following a lengthy and intense lobbying campaign was
the Mujahiddin e Khalq, a controversial and cult-like Iranian group.
The designation also comes with economic sanctions, and can result in
fines for companies that do business with countries on the list, such as
a record $8.9 billion penalty that French bank BNP Paribas paid last
year for doing business with Sudan, Iran and Cuba.
As part of the U.S. shift in policy toward Cuba, the White House ordered
a State Department review of Cuba's listing as a state sponsor of
terrorism, the U.S. officials said.
A U.S. national security official said intelligence agencies were under
pressure from senior Obama administration officials to complete their
role in the removal process by March.
"The process is under way," said the official.
To finalize Cuba's removal, Obama would need to submit to Congress a
report stating Havana had not supported terrorism-related activities for
six months, and that Cuba has provided assurances that it will not
support terrorism in the future. Cuba would be automatically dropped
from the list 45 days later.
Getting the embassy open is also tricky.
Converting the six-story U.S. interests sections in Havana into a
full-fledged embassy after 53 years would require ending restrictions on
the number of U.S. personnel in Havana, limits on diplomats' movements
and appointing an ambassador. It would allow the U.S. to renovate the
building and have U.S. security posted around the building, replacing
Cuban police.
Cuba also wants the United States to scale back its support for Cuban
dissidents when the sides meet again. U.S. administration officials have
stood firm both publicly and privately that they intend to keep
supporting the dissidents.
"I can't imagine that we would go to the next stage of our diplomatic
relationship with an agreement not to see democracy activists," U.S.
negotiator Roberta Jacobson told a hearing chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio,
a vocal Republican opponent of Obama's new Cuba policy.

Feb 4 - Members of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee said President Obama left members of Congress
and most of his administration in the dark when negotiating the plan to
normalize relations with Cuba, and they criticized the deal struck
between the U.S. and Havana.
“Instead of dismantling a 50-year-old failed policy, as it claims, the
administration may have given a 50-year-old failed regime a new lease on
life to continue its repression at home and militant support for Marxist
regimes abroad,” committee chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said during a
committee hearing Wednesday.
Had Obama consulted his staff, Royce said, he would have learned that
Havana is at risk of losing its Venezuelan oil subsidies. At a time when
the U.S. could have asserted leverage, he said, the U.S. offered a
lifeline.
“Pro-democracy and human rights activists have lamented that human
rights weren’t part of these secret negotiations,” Royce said. “We have
no indication that the Cuban government intends to give ground.”
But Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary for the State Department’s
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said Obama’s executive action was
not a concession or a gift.
“It’s a channel of communications,” she said. “We believe that we can
more effectively pursue the human rights policies and empower the Cuban
people by having a direct channel with the Cuban government to address
those concerns.”
The Obama administration issued regulations earlier this month that
allow travelers who qualify under a dozen broad categories of authorized
travel to visit the country without applying for a license.
Those categories include visiting family, conducting business,
journalism, government meetings, research, education, religious
purposes, public performances, athletic competitions and humanitarian
projects. But Americans are still not allowed to travel to Cuba for
tourism.
The policy change will also ease banking and export restrictions.
But Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) said he doesn’t see how the president’s
actions will help the Cuban people.
“I just don’t see where we’re headed with this,” he said. “I know it’s
the last two years of the presidency. I know he has a history to build,
but I was disappointed that we’re not using this as a pressure point on
a government that’s been so brutal.”
Though Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) said Obama was within his rights to
ease relations with Cuba, he said the Cuba government has to give
certain concessions before the U.S. lifts it trade embargo.
The onus, he said, is now on the Cuban government to create free fair
elections and a free press, release political prisoners and end the
harassments of political activists.
The Hill

U.S.
Diplomat vows US won't curb support for activists in Cuba despite Castro
demands

Feb 4 - The Obama
administration will not stop supporting Cuban human rights and democracy
activists as part of any deal to restore embassies between the two
countries, a top U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.
"I can't imagine that we would go to the next stage of our diplomatic
relationship without an agreement" to see democracy activists, Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson
testified during a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing.
Her response came after vigorous questioning from Florida Republican
Sen. Marco Rubio, chairing his first Senate hearing. Rubio read from an
interview Josefina Vidal, Cuba's top negotiator, gave The Associated
Press in which she tied the establishment of embassies to reduced U.S.
support for Cuban dissidents.
Jacobson, the highest-level American official to visit Havana in several
decades, said more talks on re-establishing full diplomatic relations
are planned for later this month. Besides embassies, the talks focused
on a range of concerns, from resolving fugitive and financial claims to
managing immigration and more.
Lawmakers' response to the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations has hardly fallen
along traditional partisan lines. While Rubio voiced skepticism, Arizona
GOP Sen. Jeff Flake is pushing to end U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba.
Among Democrats, California Sen. Barbara Boxer defended the Obama
administration's move. But Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who is
Cuban-American, argued the U.S. got a raw deal.
"Raul Castro is demanding the return of Guantanamo," Menendez
complained. "A full list of U.S. concessions including compensations for
the impact of the embargo, eliminating our democracy programs ... and he
concedes nothing. So how much more are we willing to give? How much more
are we willing to do to help the Castro regime fill the coffers of its
military monopolies while the Cuban people still struggle to make ends
meet?"
The two countries vowed to improve ties after a prisoner swap and the
release of Alan Gross, an American aid contractor who had been held in
Cuba for five years. The Obama administration has since relaxed several
restrictions on Cuba under the American economic embargo and, as a sign
of detente, Castro's government released 53 political prisoners.
Yet the Castros are not suddenly embracing democracy and freedom of
speech. State Department human rights chief Tom Malinowski pointed to
the roughly 140 short-term detentions in January as evidence the Castro
regime has not changed.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a
dissident human rights organization, puts the number of political
detentions in January at 178, noting it was the lowest monthly total in
more than four years. In 2014, the group says the Cuban government
carried out 8,899 short-term detentions. That's a monthly average of
741. Those numbers cannot be independently verified.
One potential source of optimism about the possibility of reform on the
island involves telecommunications. Jacobson said some firms have
already visited and "many more" are now interested. She suggested it's
unclear how the Cuban government will respond.
Though lawmakers like Rubio caution that an open Cuba means more money
"in the hands of the repressive Cuban military and its officials,"
Jacobson sees the risk differently.
"We strongly believe that the benefits of what the Cubans get in
resources through this policy outweigh any benefit to the Cuban
government that may be gained in a policy like this," she testified.
"And those will be greater, we think, than what the Cuban government
gains."
The hearing comes the same day Cuba published the first photos of Fidel
Castro in five months. The 88-year-old former leader is seen speaking
with a college student.
The next round of talks is expected to take place in Washington.
Fox News

Two Cuban
baseball players defect in Puerto Rico

Feb 4 - Two players from the
Cuban team competing in the Caribbean Series have defected.
Heriberto Suarez, national director of baseball in Cuba, confirmed to
USA TODAY Sports that shortstop Dainer Moreira and 19-year-old pitcher
Vladimir Gutierrez had abandoned the team on Tuesday.
"They decided to leave the hotel," Suarez said. "We met today and we're
going to continue forward. We remain united and confident."
The defections happened Tuesday night after the Cuban team returned to
its hotel following its second loss in as many games in the tournament.
Suarez did not provide details, but said the players' departures are
especially painful because Cuba is in the middle of a competition.
"We are very disappointed," he said. "But this will serve as a platform
for us to carry on stronger and more unified. We will continue giving
our best and will return to Cuba together."
The defections are the latest blow to Cuban baseball, which has suffered
a talent drain in recent years as All-Star-quality players like Jose
Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes have escaped
from the Communist island to pursue their fortune in Major League
Baseball.
Neither Moreira nor Gutierrez is considered to be in that level.
It's not clear whether the players were acting together. Moreira started
and went 2-for-4 in Tuesday afternoon's 6-1 loss to the Dominican
Republic, which dropped Cuba to 0-2 in the tournament. Gutierrez did not
play.
Moreira, 30, is the starting shortstop for Matanzas but has limited
experience at the international level and may be a longshot to make the
majors. One longtime Cuban observer compared him with Aledmys Diaz, the
infielder the St. Louis Cardinals signed for $8 million over four years
in March. Diaz, 24, batted .273 in 47 games between Class A and AA last
season.
Gutierrez, 19, is regarded as a better prospect even though he's not a
hard thrower. The 6-1 right-hander won rookie of the year honors in the
2013-14 Cuban league season, going 5-5 with a 3.90 ERA both as a starter
and reliever for Pinar del Rio. Gutierrez then looked sharp pitching out
of the bullpen as Cuba swept to the championship in the Central American
and Caribbean Games in Mexico last November.
Five Cuban basketball players defected during a tournament in Puerto
Rico in 2012, but no baseball players had left their team in this
island, which is a U.S. commonwealth.
To gain free agency for MLB purposes, the players would have to
establish residency in a third country. However, the process of becoming
eligible to sign with a major league team has become less onerous since
President Obama announced in December that the U.S. and Cuba would
normalize relations.
USA Today

Raúl Castro
to Obama: If you want relations, I want money, Guantanamo and an end to
Radio Martí

Jan. 28 - Raúl Castro has
demanded that the United States return the US base at Guantánamo Bay,
lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country
for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations.
Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean
States that Cuba and the US are working toward full diplomatic relations
but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement
wouldn’t make any sense”.
Castro and the US president, Barack Obama, announced on 17 December that
they would move towards renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening
embassies in each other’s countries. The two governments held
negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of
embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.
Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed
to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans
who don’t depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.
The Obama administration says removing barriers to US travel,
remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the
United States’ unaltered goal of reforming Cuba’s single-party political
system and centrally planned economy.
Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing
its system. Without establishing specific conditions, Castro’s
government has increasingly linked the negotiations with the US to a set
of longstanding demands that include an end to US support for Cuban
dissidents and Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of
terrorism.
On Wednesday, Castro emphasized an even broader list of Cuban demands,
saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal
relations with the US depend on a series of concessions that appear
highly unlikely in the near future.
“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process
of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while
the blockade still exists, while they don’t give back the territory
illegally occupied by the Guantánamo naval base,” Castro said.
He demanded that the US end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and
television broadcasts and deliver “just compensation to our people for
the human and economic damage that they’ve suffered”.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on Castro’s remarks.
The Guardian

Fear of
immigration policy change triggers new wave of Cuban migrants

Jan. 28 - President
Obama’s opening to Cuba has accelerated a surge in Cuban migration to
the United States, the latest U.S. statistics show, as many on the
island grow worried that America’s long-standing immigration benefits
for Cubans are now in jeopardy.
Last month the Coast Guard intercepted 481 Cubans in rickety boats and
rafts, a 117 percent increase from December 2013. But the boaters
account for only a fraction of those attempting to reach the United
States. At the Miami airport and ports of entry along the Mexican
border, the number of Cubans who arrived seeking refuge jumped to 8,624
during the last three months of 2014, a 65 percent increase from the
previous year.
Many Cubans have heard warnings for years that their unique immigration
privileges — which essentially treat anyone from the island who sets
foot on U.S. terra firma as a political refugee — would not last
forever.
And they have seen Cuban American lawmakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
increasingly object that too many recent arrivals make a mockery of
their refugee perks by going back to the island for cheap dental work or
Santeria ceremonies.
U.S. officials have repeatedly given assurances that these migration
laws have not changed. But the surprise nature of Obama’s Cuba move —
after 18 months of secret talks with officials of the Castro government
— has reinforced the sense that any of the long-standing pillars of U.S.
policy toward the island could fall without warning.
Cubans hoping to obtain visas to travel to the United States stand in
line outside the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. (Sarah L. Voisin/The
Washington Post)
“Anyone who is thinking about making the leap should do it as soon as
possible,” said “Pupi,” one of the Web users offering advice on busy
chat forums such as Cubans in Flight and Cuba in Miami where migrants
trade tips and share the stories of their journeys.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection could not provide an up-to-date
monthly breakdown of Cuban arrivals. But at U.S. border crossings with
Mexico, 6,489 Cuban migrants arrived during the last three months of
2014, up from 4,328 the year before. The number of Cubans processed
through the agency’s Miami field office rose from 893 to 2,135 over that
same period.
Many of those Cubans flew straight into the Miami airport, having
boarded flights in Madrid; Nassau, Bahamas; or elsewhere with passports
from Spain and other third countries. Upon reaching U.S. Customs, they
pull out their Cuban documents and request asylum, or ask to stay under
the protections offered by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which offers
permanent residency to Cubans one year after arrival in the United
States.
When U.S. diplomats traveled to the island last week for talks on
migration with their Havana counterparts, they were emphatic that the
benefits conferred on Cuban migrants were not up for debate.
“We explained to the Cuban government that our government is completely
committed to upholding the Cuban Adjustment Act,” said Alex Lee, the
State Department official leading the migration-related elements of the
talks, which also paved the way for each country to reopen an embassy in
the other’s capital.
Cuban officials at the talks repeated their adamant opposition to the
Cuban Adjustment Act and the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy under which
Cubans are eligible to stay in the United States if they touch U.S.
soil. Those intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba.
Havana blames that policy for encouraging risky illegal migration and
fueling a brain drain of the country’s professionals, who are enticed to
take their training and talent to the United States after receiving a
free education through the island’s socialist system.

Cuba's $6B
debt to Americans for seized properties hangs over US talks

Jan. 27 - A $6 billion
sticking point could create headaches for the U.S.-Cuba talks.
Though concerns over human rights, press freedoms and U.S. fugitives
living free on the island have dominated debate over the Obama
administration's negotiations on restoring diplomatic ties, the Castro
regime also still owes Americans that eye-popping sum.
The $6 billion figure represents the value of all the assets seized from
thousands of U.S. citizens and businesses after the Cuban revolution in
1959. With the United States pressing forward on normalizing relations
with the communist country, some say the talks must resolve these
claims.
"The administration has not provided details about how it will hold the
Castro regime to account for the more than $6 billion in outstanding
claims by American citizens and businesses for properties confiscated by
the Castros," Sen. Robert Menendez, D-Fla., top Democrat on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State
John Kerry ahead of historic talks in Havana last week.
Menendez urged the U.S. to "prioritize the interests of American
citizens and businesses that have suffered at the hands of the Castro
regime" before moving ahead with "additional economic and political
concessions."
Beginning with Fidel Castro's takeover of the Cuban government in 1959,
the communist regime nationalized all of Cuba's utilities and industry,
and systematically confiscated private lands to redistribute -- under
state control -- to the Cuban population.
The mass seizure without proper compensation led in part to the U.S.
trade embargo.
Over nearly 6,000 claims by American citizens and corporations have been
certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, totaling
$1.9 billion.
Today, with interest and in today's dollars, that amount is close to $6
billion.
U.S. sugar, mineral, telephone and electric company losses were heavy.
Oil refineries were taken from energy giants like Texaco and Exxon.
Coca-Cola was forced to leave bottling plants behind. Goodyear and
Firestone lost tire factories, and major chains like Hilton handed over
once-profitable real estate for nothing in return.
Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, after leading the talks
in Havana last week, did not mention the U.S. property claims at a press
briefing. The department also did not respond to FoxNews.com's requests
for comment on the matter. In Dec. 18 remarks, however, Jacobson said,
"registered claims against the Cuban government" would be part of the
"conversation."
She also noted Cuban claims of monetary losses due to the 50-year-old
U.S. embargo.
"We do not believe those things would be resolved before diplomatic
relations would be restored, but we do believe that they would be part
of the conversation," she said. "So this is a process, and it will get
started right away, but there's no real timeline of knowing when each
part of it will be completed."
The billions are owed, in part, to an array of major companies.
U.S. banks ranging from First National City Bank (which became Citibank)
to Chase Manhattan lost millions in assets. According to the list of
claimants, the Brothers of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine even
lost $7.8 million in real estate when they were expelled from the
island.
According to a government study commissioned in 2007, however, some 88
percent of the claimants are individual American property and asset
owners, many of whom would probably like to see some sort of
compensation out of the diplomatic deal-making.
"I think this is a significant issue and it has more resonance today
than it would have had 20 years ago," as nationalization has seen a
resurgence throughout Latin America in recent years, said Robert Muse, a
Washington, D.C., attorney who has represented corporate clients whose
assets were seized. "You have to take seriously the notion that a
government must support their companies when their [property] is
expropriated. You have to have some consistency on that."
Experts who spoke to FoxNews.com agree that fully compensating everyone
on the list would be a complicated, if not impossible, endeavor.
First, the Cuban government, even if it did agree in spirit to pay,
probably would not be able to afford it.
Some individual claimants may be long dead. Further, some of the
original corporations no longer exist, thanks to mergers, buyouts, and
bankruptcies over the years.
Such is the case with the Cuban Electric Company, which has the largest
claim -- $267.6 million in corporate assets (1960 dollars). The company
was part of the paper and pulp manufacturer, Boise Cascade Company
(which also has a claim for $11.7 million), at the time of the seizures.
But Boise Cascade has since spun off and the part of it that held a
subsidiary with a majority stake in Cuban Electric became Office Max --
which later merged with Office Depot in 2013. Company officials reached
by FoxNews.com had no comment on the original Cuban Electric claims.
Muse and others, like Cuba analyst Elizabeth Newhouse at the Center for
International Policy, say that companies that still have an active
interest in getting compensated might agree to more creative terms --
whether it be for less money, or tax breaks or other incentives on
future investments if and when the U.S. embargo is lifted.
"My sense is that some corporations are more interested in having a
leg-up in any trade arrangements than they are in getting their money
back," Newhouse said.
Thomas J. Herzfeld, who heads the 20-year-old Herzfeld Caribbean Basin
Fund which trades shares of firms that would have an interest in Cuba if
the embargo is lifted, said his life-long goal has been "to rebuild
Cuba." He has approached claimants about taking their claims in exchange
for investment shares. He said his fund is "well-prepared" for when
normalization resumes.
But others warn about popping the corks too soon, particularly if the
Castro regime is unwilling to take the compensation seriously. According
to the Helms-Burton Act, which enforces the sanctions, the embargo
cannot be lifted until there is "demonstrable progress underway" in
compensating Americans for their lost property. (Congress also would
have to vote to lift the embargo.)
"This is an issue where they are going to have to put their heads
together and figure out how to resolve it," Newhouse said. "I think
everyone wants to see it resolved."
Jacobson, at the close of last week's opening talks, said there was some
progress on opening up embassies, but there continue to be "areas of
deep disagreement," particularly on Cuban human rights and fugitives
from U.S. justice in Cuba.
"Let me conclude," said Jacobson, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat to
visit Cuba in more than three decades, "it was just a first step."

As
expected, the Castros want more concessions without making any changes

Jan. 26 - The start of talks
on repairing 50 years of broken relations appears to have left President
Raul Castro's government focused on winning additional concessions
without giving in to U.S. demands for greater freedoms, despite the
seeming benefits that warmer ties could have for the country's
struggling economy.
Following the highest-level open talks in three decades between the two
nations, Cuban officials remained firm in rejecting significant reforms
pushed by the United States as part of President Barack Obama's surprise
move to re-establish ties and rebuild economic relations with the
Communist-led country.
"One can't think that in order to improve and normalize relations with
the U.S., Cuba has to give up the principles it believes in," Cuba's top
diplomat for U.S. affairs, Josefina Vidal, told The Associated Press
after the end of the talks. "Changes in Cuba aren't negotiable."
It's not clear if Cuba's tough stance is part of normal negotiation
tactics or a hardened position that could prevent the talks from moving
forward.
The Obama administration has dedicated significant political capital to
rapprochement, but closer ties with the economic giant to the north also
could have major importance for Cuba, which saw growth slow sharply in
2014 and is watching with concern as falling oil prices slam Venezuela,
which has been a vital source of economic support.
In a wide-ranging interview, Vidal said that before deciding whether to
allow greater economic ties with the U.S., Cuba was seeking more answers
about Obama's dramatic of loosening the half-century trade embargo.

Measures put
into effect this month range from permitting large-scale sales of
telecommunications equipment to allowing U.S. banks to open accounts in
Cuba, but Vidal said officials on the island want to know if Cuba can
buy such gear on credit and whether it is now free to use dollars for
transactions around the world, not just those newly permitted with U.S.
institutions. Until now, at least, U.S. law and policy has banned most
foreign dealings with Cuba.
"I could make an endless list of questions and this is going to require
a series of clarifications in order to really know where we are and what
possibilities are going to open up," Vidal said.
Obama also launched a review of Cuba's inclusion on the U.S. list of
state sponsors of terrorism and Vidal said "it will be difficult to
conceive of the reestablishment of relations" while Cuba remains on that
list, which imposes financial and other restrictions.
Vidal also said full normalization will be impossible until Congress
lifts the many elements of the trade embargo that aren't affected by
Obama's executive action — a step seen as unlikely with a
Republican-dominated Congress. Among key prohibitions that remain is a
ban on routine tourism to Cuba.
Even a relatively simple measure such as granting U.S. diplomats freedom
of movement around Cuba, she said, is tied to reduced U.S. support of
dissidents, whom Cuba says are breaking the law by acting to undermine
the government of behalf of U.S. interests.
"It's associated with a change in behaviour in the diplomatic missions
as such and of the diplomatic officials, who must conduct themselves as
our officials in Washington do, with total respect for the laws of that
country," Vidal said.
She also said Cuba has not softened its refusal to turn over U.S.
fugitives granted asylum in Cuba. The warming of relations has spawned
new demands in the U.S. for the State Department to seek the return of
fugitives including Joanne Chesimard, a Black Liberation Army member now
known as Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba after she was convicted in 1977
of killing a New Jersey state trooper.
Vidal said the two nations' extradition treaty "had a very clear clause
saying that the agreement didn't apply to people who could be tied to
crimes of a political nature."
But the opening already has led to some changes, at least in the
short-term: Cuba significantly relaxed its near-total control of public
information during the talks in Havana, allowing the live broadcast of
news conferences in which foreign reporters questioned Vidal about
sensitive topics including human rights. Cuban television even broadcast
part of a news conference with Vidal's counterpart, Roberta Jacobson, to
foreign reporters, state media and independent Cuban reporters who are
considered members of the opposition.
Cubans said they were taken aback by the flow of information but wanted
to know much more about what the new relationship with the U.S. means.
"We've seen so much, really so much more than what we're used to, about
very sensitive topics in our country," said Diego Ferrer, a 68-year-old
retired state worker.
Jesus Rivero, also 68 and retired from government work, sat on a park
bench in Old Havana reading a report in the official Communist Party
newspaper, Granma, about Jacobson's press conference.
"It's good that Granma reports the press conference in the residence of
the head of the Interests Section," Rivero said. "But I think they
should explain much more so that the whole population really understands
what's going on."
The Canadian Press

The
Obama-Castro show Chapter II

(Alan Gross sitting with his
lawyers at their office. On the wall, a picture of mass murderer che
Guevara)

Jan. 19 - Alan Gross, a
subcontractor recently freed by the Cuban government after five years of
imprisonment, will be one of first lady Michelle Obama’s guests at
Tuesday’s State of the Union address along with Mr. Gross’ wife Judy.
Mr. Gross’s release, part of a spy swap, came on the same day President
Obama announced a large-scale normalization in relations between the
United States and the communist island country.

Others who will be seated in
the box include astronaut Scott Kelly, Ana Zamora, a student in the
country as part of the administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program and Capt. Phillip C. Tingirides of the Los
Angeles Police Department, who has spearheaded a program intended to
foster cooperation between the LAPD and the Watts housing developments.
Prophet Walker, an ex-convict and co-founder of Watts United Weekend who
has collaborated with Capt. Tingirides, is also a guest, as is Larry
Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Health, who announced last year that the
retail pharmacy was eliminating tobacco sales in its stores.
Others in the box include students, a doctor who was in Liberia fighting
the Ebola crisis, and several people who have written letters to the
president, including Retired Army Staff Sgt. Jason Gibson, who lost both
legs in Afghanistan, a 13-year-old from the South Side of Chicago and a
working mother from Minneapolis.
The Washington Times

Socialism
of the XXI Century: Venezuelans Throng Grocery Stores Under Military
Protection

Jan. 10 - Shoppers thronged
grocery stores across Caracas today as deepening shortages led the
government to put Venezuela’s food distribution under military
protection.
Long lines, some stretching for blocks, formed outside grocery stores in
the South American country’s capital as residents search for scarce
basic items such as detergent and chicken.
“I’ve visited six stores already today looking for detergent -- I can’t
find it anywhere,” said Lisbeth Elsa, a 27-year-old janitor, waiting in
line outside a supermarket in eastern Caracas. “We’re wearing our dirty
clothes again because we can’t find it. At this point I’ll buy whatever
I can find.”
A dearth of foreign currency exacerbated by collapsing oil prices has
led to shortages of imports from toilet paper to car batteries, and
helped push annual inflation to 64 percent in November. The lines will
persist as long as price controls remain in place, Luis Vicente Leon,
director of Caracas-based polling firm Datanalisis, said today in a
telephone interview.
Government officials met with representatives from supermarket chains
today to guarantee supplies, state news agency AVN reported. Interior
Minister Carmen Melendez said yesterday that security forces would be
sent to food stores and distribution centers to protect shoppers.

“Don’t fall into desperation
-- we have the capacity and products for everyone, with calmness and
patience. The stores are full,” she said on state television.
President Nicolas Maduro last week vowed to implement an economic
“counter-offensive” to steer the country out of recession, including an
overhaul of the foreign exchange system. He has yet to provide details.
While the main government-controlled exchange sets a rate of 6.3
bolivars per U.S. dollar, the black market rate is as much as 187 per
dollar.
Inside a Plan Suarez grocery store yesterday in eastern Caracas, shelves
were mostly bare. Customers struggled and fought for items at times,
with many trying to skip lines. The most sought-after products included
detergent, with customers waiting in line for two to three hours to buy
a maximum of two bags. A security guard asked that photos of empty
shelves not be taken.
Police inside a Luvebras supermarket in eastern Caracas intervened to
help staff distribute toilet paper and other products.
“You can’t find anything, I’ve spent 15 days looking for diapers,” Jean
Paul Mate, a meat vendor, said outside the Luvebras store. “You have to
take off work to look for products. I go to at least five stores a day.”
Venezuelan online news outlet VIVOplay posted a video of government food
security regulator Carlos Osorio being interrupted by throngs of
shoppers searching for products as he broadcast on state television from
a Bicentenario government-run supermarket in central Caracas.
“What we’re seeing is worse than usual, it’s not only a seasonal
problem,” Datanalisis’s Leon said. “Companies are not sure how they will
restock their inventories or find merchandise, with a looming fear of a
devaluation.”
The price for Venezuela’s oil, which accounts for more than 95 percent
of the country’s exports, has plunged by more than half from last year’s
peak in June to $47 a barrel this month.
“This is the worst it has ever been -- I’ve seen lines thousands of
people long,” Greisly Jarpe, a 42-year-old data analyst, said as she
waited for dish soap in eastern Caracas. “People are so desperate
they’re sleeping in the lines.”
Bloomberg

"Sadly, President
Obama made the wrong decision. The freedom and democracy of the Cuban
people will not be achieved through these benefits that he's giving --
not to the Cuban people -- but to the Cuban government. The Cuban
government will only take advantage to strengthen its repressive
machinery, to repress civil society, its people and remain in power."

-- Berta Soler, leader of
The Ladies in White.

"[Alan Gross] was not arrested for what he did, but for what could be
gained from his arrest. He was simply bait and they were aware of it
from the beginning... Castroism has won, though the positive result is
that Alan Gross has left alive the prison that threatened to become his
tomb."

-- Yoani Sanchez, Cuban
blogger and independent journalist, 14ymedio.

"The Cuban people are being ignored in this secret conversation, in this
secret agreement that we learned today. The reality of my country is
there is just one party with all the control and with the state security
controlling the whole society. If this doesn’t change, there’s no real
change in Cuba. Not even with access to Internet. Not even when Cuban
people can travel more than two years ago. Not even that is a sign of
the end of the totalitarianism in my country."

"[Obama's announcement] is horrible and disregarding the opinion of
[Cuban] civil society sends a bad message. The acceptance of neo-Castroism
in Cuba will mean greater support for authoritarianism in the region
and, as a consequence, human rights will be relegated to a secondary
role."

-- Antonio Rodiles, head
of Estado de Sats.

"Alan Gross was used as a tool by the Castro regime to coerce the United
States. Obama was not considerate of Cuban citizens and of the civil
society that is facing this tyrannical regime. In Miami, Obama promised
that he would consult Cuba measures with civil society and the
non-violent opposition. Obviously, this didn't happen. That is a fact, a
reality. He didn't consider Cuba's democrats. The betrayal of Cuba's
democrats has been consummated."

-- Guillermo Fariñas,
former Sakharov Prize recipient.

"The Obama Administration has ceded before Castro's dictatorship.
Nothing has changed. The jails remain filled, the government represents
only one family, repression continues, civil society is not recognized
and we have no right to assemble or protest... The measures that the
government of the United States has implemented today, to ease the
embargo and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, will in no way
benefit the Cuban people. The steps taken will strengthen the Castro
regime's repression against human rights activists and increase its
resources, so the security forces can keep harassing and repressing
civil society." -

-Angel Moya, former
political prisoner of the Black Spring (2003).

"We are in total disagreement with what has transpired today. It's a
betrayal of those who within Cuba have opposed the regime in order to
achieve definitive change for the good of all Cubans."

-- Felix Navarro, former
political prisoner and co-head of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU).

"It's discomforting that the accounts of the Castro regime can grow, as
the first step will be more effective repression and a rise in the level
of corruption."

-- Jose Daniel Ferrer,
former political prisoner and co-head of the Cuban Patriotic Union (UNPACU)

"This is a betrayal that leaves the democratic opposition defenseless.
Obama has allied himself with the oppressors and murderers of our
people."
-- Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez," former political prisoner and head
of the National Resistance Front.

"I feel as though I have been abandoned on the battlefield."
-- Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, former Cuban political prisoner and U.S.
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Berta Soler,
leader of the Ladies in White, talks about Obama's "wrongful decision"

Each time
the Castro's are desperate for money, an ignorant with money shows up

Obama unmasked

Dec.17 - After the end of the
Soviet Union, when the Castro brothers lost the subsidy of more than $4
billion a year, Hugo Chávez came in to their rescue.

Now, 15 years later when
Venezuela is on the verge of bankruptcy thanks in great part for having
become a colony of Castroland, Barack Obama steps up to the plate to
save them once again.

The Castros are always lucky
enough to always find an ignorant with money willing to save them

Obama gave
the Castros everything they asked, and more

Dec.17 - Everything Obama
said he wasn't going to do, he did today.

He traded Alan Gross, who had
been a hostage in Cuba for 5 years, for 3 Cuban spies including one
directly involved in the murder of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots.

He is re-establishing
relations with the Castro brothers without asking anything in
return.

He will increase trade
relations, travel, tourism, and everything that would bring money to the
Cuban dictatorship, so they can continue to enslave, exploit, torture
and oppress the Cuban people.

As Raul Castro said in his
speech at the same time Obama was speaking to the American people: "We
didn't make one single concession".

They didn't have to since
Obama was willing to give them everything they wanted and more.

It is a shameful day for
America.

Obama to
speak later today about a "policy change" regarding Cuba

Dec.17 - President Barack
Obama plans to talk today about the next steps in U.S.-Cuba relations,
strained by a decades-long embargo, after Cuba released prisoner Alan
Gross.
Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat close to Obama, said in a
statement the president would announce the normalization of trade and
travel relations with the island nation.
Gross, a 65-year-old American, left Cuba on a U.S. government plane this
morning to fly to the U.S., said an administration official familiar
with the release. The person spoke on condition of anonymity before
Obama’s remarks, which are scheduled for noontime in Washington.
Gross, who has been in failing health, was released on humanitarian
grounds under U.S. pressure, the person said.
Gross was arrested by Cuban officials while working to expand Internet
access for Havana’s Jewish community. He was accused of undermining the
Cuban state and in December 2009 was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Cuban President Raul Castro is scheduled to speak about the same time as
Obama to talk about U.S.-Cuba relations, Agence France Presse reported.
Bloomberg

Obama makes
a deal with Castro to exchange the Cuban spies for Alan Gross

Dec.17 - U.S.
contractor Alan Gross, held by the Cuban government since 2009, was
freed Wednesday as part of a landmark deal with Cuba that paves the way
for a major overhaul in U.S. policy toward the island, senior
administration officials tell CNN.
President Obama is expected to announce Gross' release at noon.
Gross' "humanitarian" release by Cuba was accompanied by a separate spy
swap, the officials said. Cuba also freed a U.S. intelligence source who
has been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years, although authorities did
not identify that person for security reasons. The U.S. released three
Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage in 2001.
President Barack Obama is also set to announce a broad range of
diplomatic and regulatory measures in what officials called the most
sweeping change in U.S. policy toward Cuba since the 1961 embargo was
imposed.
Alan Gross, at right with Rabbi Arthur Schneier, has been in Cuban
custody since December 2009, when he was jailed while working as a
subcontractor. Cuban authorities say Gross tried to set up illegal
Internet connections on the island. Gross says he was just trying to
help connect the Jewish community to the Internet. Former President
Jimmy Carter and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson have both traveled to
Cuba on Gross' behalf. On December 17, Gross was released from Cuban
prison.
Luke Somers, a photojournalist being held captive by al Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), was shown begging for his life in a video
released by the terror group. Somers was killed by AQAP militants during
a raid conducted by U.S. forces on Friday, December 5. A U.S. official
said that during the raid, one of the terrorists ran inside the compound
and shot Somers and South African hostage, Pierre Korkie.
Kenneth Bae is one of two American detainees released from North Korea
in November. Bae had been held since late 2012, and in April 2013 was
sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for unspecified "hostile acts"
against the North Korean government. North Korea claimed Bae was part of
a Christian plot to overthrow the regime.
Matthew Todd Miller also was allowed to leave North Korea with Kenneth
Bae in November. According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency,
he was convicted in September of committing "acts hostile" to North
Korea and sentenced to six years of hard labor. He had traveled to North
Korea after arranging a private tour through the U.S.-based company Uri
Tours, which takes tourists into North Korea. He and Bae were released
after U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper went to
Pyongyang as an envoy of President Barack Obama, a senior State
Department official told CNN. Read more
CNN

The Dark
Side of Cuba’s Ebola Economy

Dec.11 -The communist
government’s medical missionaries win praise for the regime, but they
are victims, too.
If you ask most people what Cuba is famous for they probably will name
two things: rum and cigars. But if you ask leftists what Cuba is famous
for they will usually say something altogether different: healthcare and
education.
Despite all the government oppression and poverty and the endless
speeches by el líder maximo and his sibling, the Cuban healthcare and
education systems are still held up as justification for the 1959 Cuban
revolution in and of themselves.
So good is the healthcare system on the island supposed to be, and such
is the abundance of skilled doctors, that Cuba can even afford to export
medical personnel to disease- and crisis-stricken parts of the world in
a gesture of international solidarity that the capitalist West does not
begin to rival.
Estimates suggest that around 50,000 Cuban-trained health workers are
spread across 66 countries, with many stationed in some of the poorest
corners of the globe. In 2010 Cuba provided the largest contingent of
medical staff during the aftermath of the huge earthquake that shook
Haiti. Similarly, after an earthquake devastated Pakistan-administered
Kashmir in 2005, there were more Cuban doctors on hand to aid the relief
effort than there were medics from Pakistan proper. Who said socialist
internationalism died in 1989?
The government in Havana rakes in around $8 billion a year on the backs
of its health workers.
And so today, during the current Ebola crisis, while the rich capitalist
countries pontificate selfishly about things like anti-Ebola border
security, socialist Cuba has again come to the rescue, flying in 461
health workers to stricken West Africa—more than any first-world
country.
Even John Kerry, secretary of state in a country that has spent decades
trying to oust the Castro clan, described Cuba’s contribution to the
fight against the Ebola outbreak as “impressive.”
This penchant for medical internationalism goes back to the greatest
icon of the revolution, Ernesto “Che” Guevara. He was a doctor and
envisioned a world in which a medic would use “the technical knowledge
of his profession in the service of the revolution and the people.”
Yet like Guevara’s socialism, Cuba’s fraternal medical altruism has a
dark side. Che may have felt a genuine affinity with the poor, but he
was also a fanatic who locked up homosexuals and other “deviants” in
labor camps. He wanted to “bring justice to the downtrodden” but he
wanted to do it by launching a first nuclear strike on New York or
Washington. The Cuban government, still led by some of Che’s former
contemporaries, exemplifies a similar contradiction between idealism and
brutal coercion.
There is in fact a great deal more to the Castro brothers’ medical
diplomacy than the development of Cuba as, in the words of gushing
Guardian columnist, a “beacon of international humanitarianism.” The
government in Havana rakes in around $8 billion a year on the backs of
its health workers. Most notably it receives cheap oil from the Chavez/Maduro
autocracy in Venezuela, but it also gets a hefty sum of much-needed hard
currency from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for every doctor it
sends to Africa and beyond.
Not that there is any shame in that: socialist economies need hard
currency to buy things on the international markets as much as any other
country. But if there’s altruism here, it’s on the part of the workers
themselves, since they rarely see any of the money they bring in for the
dictatorship back home. All the available evidence suggests that they
receive a measly stipend from the regime—about $20 extra a month—with
the rest pocketed by the government to bolster things like Cuba’s
omnipresent security apparatus.
Yet lavish praise is heaped on the supposed generosity of Havana’s
elderly rulers—the same ones who for 50 years have stopped most Cubans
from travelling abroad. “Cuba is a special case,” says José Luis Di
Fabio, who heads the World Health Organization’s Havana office, told
DeutscheWelle. “The country has the ability to react very quickly
because of the experience of the physicians and the political will to do
so.”
“Political will” in this instance is a euphemism, for there is ample
evidence to suggest that Cuba’s medical diplomacy is far from voluntary
for those sent abroad on their country’s international missions. Much
like those who decline to attend the “voluntary” pro-government rallies
which sporadically fill the streets of Havana and give a veneer of
democracy to the one-party state, those medics who choose not to play
ball with the Leninist Center can pay a severe penalty. As Madrid-based
Cuban doctor Antonio Guedes told the same German website, “Whoever does
not cooperate may lose his job, or at least his position, or his son
will not get a place at university.”
This jibes with something Yanelis Ochoa, a university medical student in
Santiago de Cuba, told me when I visited the country in 2011. Talking
about the future, Yanelis said that when she eventually graduates she
“may have to go to Venezuela or Brazil for a short time to work.” What
about your boyfriend? I asked. Are you not getting married soon?
“James,” she replied with unusual gravity. “You don’t understand how
these things work. If they say I go then I go. It’s that simple.”
The Daily Beast

This is how much the Castro brothers make from their slave doctors

Nov. 17 - No wonder the New
York Times wants to make sure Cuban slave doctors cannot escape. The NYT
partners in Havana make billions of dollars a year exploiting the slave
doctors and other Cuban professionals.

The slave trade brings the
Castro brothers almost four times more than tourism.

New York's Granma, wants to make sure that the slave doctors can't seek
freedom

Nov. 17 - The New York Times,
best known as the Castros' mouthpiece in New York, has a new editorial
today, the sixth in as many weeks, in favor of the fascist dictatorship
in Cuba.

This time, the NYT wants the
United States to cancel the program that has allowed thousands of slave
Cuban doctors flee their slave masters and seek refuge in this country.

New York's Granma knows that
the Castro brothers make more than $9 billion a year in their slave
trade with Cuban doctors and other professionals, and want to make sure
that those doctors keep working for their partners in Havana.

Oct. 10 - Just 90 miles off
the tip of Florida lies a half-baked, abandoned relic of the Cold
War-era arms race — what was once going to be a joint Cuban-Soviet
nuclear reactor. Thank God it never panned out. Because not only do we
now have these incredible shots from photographer Darmon Richter, but
every last aspect of this thing would have been a total and utter
disaster.

It all started back in 1976,
when comrades in communism, Cuba and the Soviet Union, agreed to build
two nuclear reactors near Juragua, Cuba. And if it had ever been
finished, just one of these 440-megawatt reactors could have satisfied
over 15 per cent of Cuba’s energy needs. As The New York Times explained
when construction officially ceased, this wasn’t your everyday reactor:
The V.V.E.R. design, which was the most advanced at the time, was the
first to be exported by Moscow for use in a tropical climate. It differs
from the Chernobyl-style design in that the radioactive core and fuel
elements are contained within a pressurised steel vessel.
Construction didn’t start until 1983, which gave Cuba 10 years to build
their potential-livelihood, all thanks to the the steady flow of Soviet
funds. Of course, when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the essential
funds ceased, over 300 former Soviet technicians returned to the
motherland, and all construction came to a standstill — despite the fact
that 40 per cent of the heavy machinery had already been installed.
Still, it wasn’t over quite yet. The whole project spent nearly a decade
in limbo, until finally, in 2000, Fidel Castro told Vladamir Putin that
he was done with the two countries’ former joint-dream. Now, the power
plant at Juragua was officially little more than a testament to what
could have been — which is a very good thing. Because as it turns out,
“what could have been” basically entailed wildly dangerous conditions
and potentially a whole mess of destruction. Continue reading and see
more photos
Gizmodo

Citizens
protesting against the regime on March 28 in Havana's famous Galiano
Street

Videos: The
Ladies in White protest in Havana and stopped from marching in Holguín

Dec. 3 - Video of a protest
by the Ladies in White on Sunday December 1 at Parque Gandhi in Havana
and an attempt to march in Holguin, but were stopped by Castro's police

Cuban lady
is brutally attacked by Castro's police for expressing her opinions

Nov. 4 - Anonymous Venezuela
has a warning: This is the future of Venezuela unless they get rid of
Maduro and the other puppets under the control of the Castro brothers.

Yoani
Sáncez's presentation at Google Ideas Summit

October 26 - Yoani Sánchez
explains how Internet without Internet is used by Cubans inside the
island.

Spanish
daily ABC has an article about the false myth of Cuba's healthcare

Foto de la
versión impresa del reportaje en ABC

March 17 - On Thursday of
last week, Carmen Muñoz a columnist for Spanish daily ABC, called me to
ask for permission to use the photos at therealcuba.com for an article
about the false myth of Cuba's healthcare.

I was able to send her many
of the photos on high resolution to use on the print edition of the
newspaper.

The article was published on
Sunday on ABC and is also on their web page at
ABC.es (Spanish)

March 29 - I was interviewed by Ed Kasputis, of Baseball PhD, about
baseball in Cuba before Castro and about the two Cubas, the one for
foreigners and the one for regular Cubans.
Ed did a previous program with Mr. Sports Travel of San Diego, CA, about
the five top international baseball destinations and was surprised to
find out that the #1 destination was Cuba.
He received some nice pictures of Cuba and was ready to book a trip when
he saw therealcuba.com and changed his mind.
He interviewed me as part of a program about the new Marlins Stadium and
I was able to talk about baseball in Cuba before Castro and then we had
a long chat about what is the reality of life in Cuba under Castro.
The program lasts 53 minutes, if you are not a baseball fan and just
want to hear my interview about Cuba use your mouse to move the dial to
minute 25:35
Click
here to listen

Listen to Fidel Castro

For those who think that the Cuban people chose the system imposed by
the Castro brothers, here are some of the things that Fidel Castro said
and promised when he gained power
Click Here

Satellite
photos of Cuba's prisons, missile installations, military bases and
more

Dec. 17 - Cuba Facts is an ongoing series of succinct
fact sheets on various topics, including, but not limited to, political
structure, health, economy, education, nutrition, labor, business,
foreign investment, and demographics, published and updated on a regular
basis by the Cuba Transition Project staff at the University of Miami.

Click here to learn the truth about Cuba's Health, Education,
Personal Consumption and much more in pre-Castro Cuba.